TUE POD @SpenceChecketts on #Big12 FB schedule, #SBLIX, NBA chaos + more(@PrizePicks)

All right, what is going on? It's drivetime on a Tuesday afternoon. It is sixty four degrees on Tuesday, February the fourth in downtown Salt Lake City, Utah. Unseasonably warm. Now it's not going to last. We have some snow and cold weather in the forecast coming up this weekend and into next week. But hey, a nice little reminder that sometimes it feels good when.

The weather's warm. But as it is every day, it's good.

Out of you.

Along for the ride's fence check. It's behind the mic. That's Porter Larson producing the program behind the Glass.

Today.

We've got a busy, busy show on the program. The latest on the NBA trade deadline on Thursday. It comes and goes, what will the Utah Jazz do? If anything? Some conversation that I've had over the past twenty four hours indicates the Jazz aren't done. I think John Collins is going to be traded. And I will get into this and I'll tell you why where I think he's gonna go. Jazz played a game last night, entertaining game last night against a really good team. Indiana has been

That game comes our way tomorrow.

Now, Utah Hockey Club and Action Tonight they are they're going to welcome in the Philadelphia Flyers. It is your final chance to go through the motions and pretend to vote for the Utah Hockey Club team name Utah Outlaws, Utah Mammoth, and Utah Hockey Club. Your three options. Seven o'clock Mountain time will be when the puck drops. That game is on ESPN, plus some data in on the

Big game in Provo tonight.

It's not until nine o'clock, number twenty, Arizona in town to take on BYU's won four straight games. BYU is actually a favorite in this one. Vegas has BYU favored by two and a half. Ken Palm gives BYU that fifty two percent chance of winning the game. So big college basketball game here locally. Utah State is back in action after getting smoked by New Mexico over the weekend. They're going to be in larry Me to take on Wyoming. University of Utah men's basketball team back in action tomorrow

And so we'll get you ready for the super Bowl coming up.

How about college football schedule release day?

Huh right, you guys are pumped for that.

Utah gets their football schedule. B WHYU gets their football schedule? These two teams will play this season on October the eighteenth, which is so dumb, it's beyond dumb. It's ridiculous. I do not know why this decision was made. We will get into it.

Of course.

This is ultimately the time where everybody is now debating who has the harder schedule. B. Why you were Utah breaking new is? Nobody knows. Arizona Day was picked to finish sixteen in the conference last year. But we'll do some Utah schedule release on the program today and give you some thoughts on what I think they got right, what I'm hoping they will look at a little bit differently and just kind of go from there. I missed

Getting ready for Sunday. Don't forget if you have some.

Errands to run on Sunday and you can't be in front of your television, make sure to keep that dial. Tune to this station where you're home with the Super Bowl this year and every year. And we've got ten hours of coverage for you starting on Sunday. So super Bowl can be heard right here on ESPN seven hundred.

After Bill stops by.

It has been a very busy seventy two hours for one. Tim McMahon Band McMahon, who wrote the piece, kind of outline outlining exactly out this went down, including that tidbit that the Jazz didn't even know what trade they're facilitating until it was too late. So Tim stops by today, typically a Friday staple of ours.

But Chris Camaradnie, we're gonna get him out of his house.

Because it's sixty two degrees for a good hour with Ck where we'll do a little bit of a deep dive into the college football schedule release Dave Fox in the four o'clock hours on TV with Dave. Last night ten thirty five, Cam Well you Cam you five questions with Spence.

Had a good time in that direction.

So Bill Riley, Tim McMahon, Chris Camaradnie, Dave Fox, Me, Spence Check. Its all of you, the great listeners on this Tuesday. Happy Tuesday to you, Happy sixty three three Tuesday in February to you and that guy port Larson on a Tuesday Utah BYU Football October eighteenth is like nonsensical. According to ESPN stats and info employed by this station, namely Zach in the middays and now you in the afternoons. The last time BYU and Utah played football in October was nineteen sixty seven.

What are we doing here?

Yes, nineteen sixty seven, Spence Mike Giddings would have been the head coach. He was at the time recruiting one of his little league players named O. J. Simpson to Salt Lake City. Little connection there the Jews. Yes, if you go back to nineteen sixty seven, the last time they played in October, I don't. I mean, they're in the same conference. I don't really care whatever happened.

To the Jews.

He had a pretty quiet post football career. I always respect people to just go and do their own thing after they're done playing football.

Yeah.

I didn't really hear much after that, but seriously, had what are we? What are we doing? What are we doing?

I scheduling this football game in mid October?

It's a It's different for me, but at the end of the day, this is this is just a big twelve matchup.

Listen. I I don't mind that.

Don't be that guy.

You're not building the schedule around the Holy War. I'm just glad that it's happening.

Don't be a gen z Utah fan that vapes and streams on Twitch. I don't do either of those. I don't do any of those things. Don't lie you stream on Twitch, I don't. I don't even play video games or vape.

Actually, if I come in contact with nicotine, I smoke it. So if I'm around of Epe, I'll hit it, but I don't. I don't buy then, just to be honest.

Look, I understand your points. Okay, but we're in the same conference now, it's no longer rubbing it in that they're not in the conference. This is one of the best rivalries in the entire country, if not.

The Big Twelve. And by the way, the game last.

Year for Big twelve fans that were unfamiliar a pretty decent first Foray in a Big Twelve play. That game was highly rated. It was awesome to to finish. I think it's silly, that's just me. Yeah, I don't disagree with you. It'll be weird.

It'll take some getting used to what team? What are they playing on rivalry weekend?

UAH plays Kansas and the YU plays UCF.

So yeah, we're not even doing a Revelie week I guess, hey, Rivalry Week, Spence is when you play the rivalry game. So I think we're making too much a deal of it. Rivalry Week is October eighteenth.

Now you're digging with everyone'szagging. You're trying to be impossible. Nobody agrees with you. This is a dumb day to play this game.

Well, at least today we have the Voice of the Youths formerly known as ESPN seven hundred Bill formally Notice Artists formally known as indeed, Tim McMahon, Chris com Ronnie.

We got the crew to discuss it all. We're going to dig into it, okay, and we'll bring in Bill in right off the top.

We'll see what Riles has to say.

But before we get the bill, courtesy of our good friends at the ESPN seven hundred Cash Kickoff, which is here, it's time for your shot to win one thousand dollars in cash to pay your bills. Text Bank right now to five eight seven seven seven one thousand. That's Bank to five eight seven seven seven one thousand for a chance to win one thousand dollars in cash in this nationwide contest. Good luck from all of us at ESPN seven hundred time to get to it.

Time now for you opening tip.

All right, even though Porter's being difficult and he's being a gen z Utah football fan who vapes and streams on Twitch while he's playing World of Warcraft, even though he doesn't do any of that. Utah football schedule released today. Big twelve schedule released today. So Utah will open up against UCLA in Pasadena and then they come home for cal Poly. September the sixth will be Utah's home opener. They travel to Laramie to take on Wyoming. I don't

A lot of random early buys for teams.

Utah will have a buye between West Virginia and Arizona State, so it's good.

Did the Utes get a.

Buye before welcoming into defending Big twelve chance to Salt Lake City. But that stretch where they go home against Arizona State at BYU home against Colorado is pretty tough, sandwiched around a road trip to Morgantown in a home game against Cincinnati, and then they finish off at Baylor. You know, Baylor really turned it on at the end

Because of Arizona State at home.

They're at BYU in Provo, then Colorado Cincinnati, and then they'll finish with two of their final three on the road. And so of course everybody's doing the thing today where you try to analyze, Okay, who has the easier schedule Utah BYU. Who has the more difficult schedule Utah BYU. Here's a jerky little secret nobody knows because it's freaking February and we don't know what these teams are going to look like come fall. On the BYU side of things,

So we'll talk about it.

Your road trip opportunities as a Utah Utah youth football fan, Pasadena, California, late August, go do that place in golf that'll be lovely. And then Laramie, Wyoming, Morgantown, West Virginia, Provo, Utah, Waco, Texas, and Lawrence, Kansas. I'm excited. What are you looking at me like that for? I'm pumped for these markets. I feel like you're judging me.

I feel I feel as though, remember, your feelings are not facts.

Okay, so I know you feel this way, but it's not factual.

Well, my feelings are also in the vast minority on this particular one.

But I'm stoke for Laramie.

We'll send you out now.

We'll get to basketball at a moment, but of course we'll do the schedule release to start things off. And I just I'm gonna ask right off the top, why Utah BYU October eighteenth? The last time these two teams played football in October? I think you were twenty five. It was nineteen sixty seven.

Yeah, I to be honest with you, I have no idea. I mean, I got the November thing, like early November but the middle of October is an odd time for that to me.

Yeah, I have no idea.

Maybe they're downplaying it, maybe they don't have any other good games that day, but you would think I kind of I didn't mind November ninth last year. Sometimes you'll get buried on other rivalry Saturdays, but it just seems like an odd time to play it, right, smack dab in the middle of the season.

Anything else really? I mean, look the difficult part about you know, a day like today where fans just want to know, like, Okay, is it a hard schedule or is it an easy schedule? Arizona State was picked sixteenth last year. I have no idea if this is a hard or an easy schedule. But other than byu Utah October the eighteenth down in Provo, anything else really jump out? When you saw the release?

Yeah, I mean that's a that's a good back to back right there. Here's the thing, I just until we know what these rosters are going to definitively look like, and I shoot, like you just said, we knew what Arizona State's roster was going to definitively look like. They had sixty new faces, and they go sixteenth and they finished first. I don't have a great feel for it. I mean, I think Utah is going to be better.

Yeah, that k State game here at home. Hopefully we'll have massive implications. Obviously, there's a lot of football. Will hell, there's a lot of time between the football and then there's a lot of football between you know, the start of the season and that game. But that game when Case State rolls into town, that certainly could be a heavyweight fight. Ultimately, the non con you know, UCLA is the first game Pasadena will see. I mean, that program's

Well, now that game was scheduled a long long time ago.

OK, got it.

In fact, I think you was scheduled almost ten years ago. And I just know this in conversations with people, it's it's you know, people are like, well, just buy yourself out of that game. Well, you know that's I don't know the exact figure I'm going to guess that would be if you tried to buy yourself out of a game like that. First of all, Wyoming wants that game. Second of all, it's expensive to buy yourself out.

Of games with D one schools.

Now, if you're playing A one double A or something like that's a little cheaper, but it's hard to do with that. It doesn't always make economic sense. So that that game has been on the schedule for a while, Wyoming will come back here. But yeah, that was that was done about. I think I think about ten years ago.

UCLA has been down for a while. You know, their first year in the Big Ten, they go three and six overall, or three and six in Conference five and seven overall. I'm not going to sit here and tell you I'm ready to give you an accurate preview of the UCLA Bruins next year, but I suppose starting things off an opponent that may not be that challenging yet is out of a P four conference, is something that you can kind of look forward to.

What's your thoughts on the opening game against Ucla?

Yeah, I think so.

I mean they struggled a little bit last year. Deshaun Foster, I think was their first year quarterback or head coach, had never been a head coach before. I think they got a little bit better though as the year went along. But if you're going to play a P four school, I think Ucla still kind of trying to figure out where it falls in the Big Ten and going down there it's familiar territory. I think I like that as an opener, especially with cal Pauly and Wyoming on the schedule.

Yeah.

They actually, to your point, went through a stretch. Now Ethan Garber's was a senior, so he's gone. But to finish off the year the second half of the year, they won at Rutgers, they want at Nebraska, then they want at home against Iowa, and they gave Washington and Southern Cali good game before winning at Fresno to finish things off.

Just the start of the season was rough. They had a pretty rough schedule.

They got smoked by LSU, Oregon and Penn State and then played a little bit better.

So yeah, to your point, they didn't prove a little bit all right.

So when you look at the let's let's let's let's break this in two parts. So the home schedule is cal Poly, Texas Tech, Arizona State, Colorado, Cincinnati, Kansas State. And you know, I'm not gonna be the guy that says I missed the Pac twelve every single year, but I do and I continue to. But with the with the options bill at our disposal, that's not I mean, look,

Yeah yeah, those are three of the top six in the Big twelve coming to your place, Arizona State and Arizona State.

Spence.

You know, even going back to the PAC twelve days, everybody was looking for that rival of the Pac twelve and oh it's you, and it was never usc come on Via. They played good games, but that wasn't I always felt like Utah and Asu there was a little bit of an edge and some chippiness there, and there were good games played in Salt Lake and in Tempe.

I like that.

And I think that, you know, as they play in the Big twelve too, that could it's kind of reagion. Utah recruits a lot of kids out of Arizona. They go ahead to head and recruiting. I like that game, Dion and and the road show comes to Salt Lake City. I don't mind that. In Kansas State, man, they're not glamorous, kind of like we you know, people used to talk about Utah. They're not glamorous, they're not sexy, but what do they win a lot of football games? And that's

I think it's a good home schedule BYU.

I mean, look, we did this exercise last year and as we've already outlined, it's just impossible to know who has the easier schedule, who has the harder schedule, but BYU does return a grip of talent. Where do you think preseason top twenty five? Where do you think Brigham Young Lands next year.

I've seen a lot of early polls that have them in that kind of nine to twelve thirteen range, and based on what they did this past year, Okay, don't I don't value them quite that high. I think they're a top twenty five program for sure. I think they were one of those teams. You know, It's kind of funny. Utah was on the other side of the ball bouncing their way, and I thought the ball bounce BYU's way quite a bit. I'm not saying that the disparage the program.

Does that sound about right to you?

Yeah, I would guess fifteen sixteen. What about I'm assuming Arizona State also ranked? But which other Big twelve teams are you?

Are you?

Are you guessing as of now will be in the preseason top twenty five?

Best guess I'm gonna say Arizona State, though I mean cam Scattaboo's a big loss.

To look around at that a little bit.

Kansas State's got a chance, Baylor might have a chance. Depending on the hype around Colorado, they might have a chance. I'm going to say in the preseason top twenty five that there's probably four, maybe five Big twelve teams ranked, but probably not many more than that Utah. Some people are gonna I mean, Bill Connelly from ESPN picked them to win the league, and I don't think you could make a case for that, certainly. I think a lot of people when they come to preseason and offseason polls

One more football question.

Then we'll move over to some hoops and obviously get a little Super Bowl talk with you as well as somebody who has now called games in the Big Twelve, and as somebody who has experienced, you know, growing up and going to school in the Midwest. Road trip options Pasadena right out of the gates, Go ahead and do that in August, play some golf and then Porter's juice to head up to the you know, to the Wyoming game. He wants to go to Laramie. So we're gonna send

Not judging.

So Laramie, Morgantown, Provo, Waco, Lawrence, Kansas.

Those are your road trip options.

Give us the Bill Riley Zagat guide to trips and cities and restaurants.

Where should you fans look to go if.

We're taking well, we know what the Rose Bowl is, most ute fans know what Laramie is, so we'll wipe those off the board. I've never been to Morgantown for a football game, so I am looking forward to. I hear it's a great college town, and I hear it's a great atmosphere. And rich Rod's back at West Virginia. I think that they got a chance to be sneaky good. It's not easy to get to You kind of have to fly to Pittsburgh and make an hour and a half drive south. But I would say Morgantown, Wacoh. Not

But the stadium, it's going to be a brand.

New football stadium, assuming they get it finished and they're not playing an Arrowhead again. Lawrence is a great college town, and Kay, you's got a chance to be pretty good next year again if the Daniels kids stays healthy. So I would rank the trips for college town atmospheres, Lawrence, Morgantown, and then probably Waco is where I would go.

All right, moving over to some hoops and I wanted to start here, and I know I can remember back in the day when we were working together every day, you had an old school picture of you and you and I think it was Roy Williams. Is that correct?

That is correct?

Have you ever called a Kansas basketball game? Like when you think about the fact that Kansas is rolling into saut Lake and you will be calling Utah Kansas basketball, Like, has that kind of landed where it needs to in that brain of yours, Because this is a pretty cool thing that you have on the horizon for your career.

I think, yeah, I got to when I was in college the student radio station, we had a seat court side so I got to call some games my senior year at Allen Field House. Nice the Utes played the Jayhawks in that one off game in Kansas City, and like, oh, was it fourteen or fifteen? So I did call one in Kansas City. But this will be the first time they come here, so it'll be fun.

It'll be fun.

And you know, Kansas is good, they're talented. They've been a little bit up and down. But I don't know what's going on with Iowa State. They were top five. Now they've lost three straight. But let's get over there to the Utes now. And you know, ultimately, after winning three straight games in the Big Twelve, including a win over Brigham Young, maybe some folks got a little bit over their skis with excitement. And of course since then

It wasn't a good loss, Spence.

Oklahoma State had just lost Kansas State by twenty eight. You know, Utah beat them by twenty one. It was really the start of the game that did them in. Craig and I talked about it on the Coaching Show last night. They just they didn't come out on the defensive end with great energy, and they let Oklahoma State kind of dictate. And Oklahoma State's not a great offensive basketball team, but they let them dictate at home, and they got down like twelve three and then fifteen to five.

Has Craig said anything to you about because we had Craig on the show on Friday and I asked him and whenever you say tinkering to a coach, you kind of cringe because you know they take that as an insult. But the rotations and the lineups, like every night, it feels like it's different every night. There's a guy who didn't get run the game before who comes back and

Now.

I think he's trying to figure out who's going to bring it for him sometimes, if that makes sense. You know, it's really been up and down at the point guard spot. Miro Little had that great game against Failor, and he struggled the last couple of games. Mike Sharp Johns had some struggles, but now he's playing a little bit better. And you know, boy, if you want to be consistent at any one position on the floor, you'd love for that point guard to be that spot where you're consistent.

All Right, you already alluded to this, but let's just get a thought before we get over the Super Bowl. Let's get a.

Thought on the game tomorrow night.

It is Colorado, and Colorado is probably the worst team in the conference because you know, zher to ten and then look at West Virginia at Cincinnati. I said this after the Cincinnati win I'm like, look, like I said to you, they have to find some road wins, and it felt like they had a four game stretch with three on the road with some winnable games. West Virginia solid and that's a tough place to get a win.

Give me a quick thought on the two game roady after that.

Yeah, the Colorado game is one you've got to have. Again, as mentioned, they've lost ten in a row. They're just they've had some injuries. They don't have the same talent that they've had in recent years. He's had some NBA guys in recent years, including one that's playing for the Jazz. So it's they're just they're lacking talent right now and being at home and coming off the game Saturday tomorrow night's one that I think that they should they should

It's funny.

UCF has beaten Kansas, They've taken Houston to the wire. They're tough.

And then your other away team is going.

To be Arizona and BYU, So yeah, rote you know they're going to be tested on the road for sure. And then you're bringing Kansas here, West Virginia here too. So this second half of the first half of the schedule was difficult for you. Till the first ten, they had the fourth most difficult schedule in the Big Twelve. But it's the Big Twelve. It's not like the second half's going to ease up a bunch either.

So all right, super Bowl fifty nine in the Big Easy. Hopefully somebody is going to go over to Dani Seafood and hab A Shrimp po Boy in honor of Bill and Space Great, Oh my gosh, that was one of my favorite weeks that I've ever had in doing this for a living. That was so fun for our listeners

That part of it, that is right.

How did you forget that those.

Arrogant Alabama fans that were in there almost they were just being so they were being so petty and just like they were patting us on all you guys are.

A cute little team.

And then I said Saban was a little arrogant, and that was really before he'd ever won anything at Alabama. And yeah, that one guy did not want to have that.

Did he go back to Mormon church? He says to Bill.

I'm like, oh, all right, well, I guess that's the low hanging fruit because we're a Utah radio station. Anyway, that was an awesome week and the game, of course, I still think that's the best individual single win in the history of the program.

But that's just me.

I am stunned Bill that the line has not moved at all. It opened up at one point five. The Chiefs are still a one point five point favorite, and you know the money line is now even, but the over runner forty eight point five.

What's your gut tell you?

Do you think you guys in trouble or are the refs just going to give you another Super Bowl?

Well, okay, thank you for that they I think it's going to be a really good game. I like Kansas City's chances. By the way, stat of the day I read this somewhere today. Patrick Mahomes is fifteen to zero in indoor games. He's never lost a game in a dome geeze.

So I think it's a good if. Here's what I'll say.

If if they can run the ball with any real success and they get kind of a lead, a seven to ten point lead, I think the Eagles will win. I don't think the Chiefs can afford to let the Eagles get up, you know, even ten points on them, because I think if they're doing that, that means they're running the ball well, controlling the clock and keeping the Homes off the field. If Kansas City can get off

I think they have a good chance to win that thing.

I'm not betting against, so I'll tell you that much.

Man.

What are your plans for the Super Bowl? What are your plans for the Big Game?

Anything?

Fun?

I'm going to be in Cincinnati watching the game because I'll be on the road with the Utes.

Oh okay, man, all right.

Can I ask you a quick question?

Yeah? Go ahead, Please think about this.

Yeah please, Because I'm kind of not doing the show day in and day out. I'm not really very plugged into the Jazz, and they're pretty terrible this year. But after all the Lucas stuff and reading all the Lucas stuff over the last couple of days, I've got to ask you, do the Jazz have a plan?

Spence?

I mean, if I asked you today, what do the Jazz have a plan for the next two to three years to be good? I'm not even saying great, to be good again because I'm looking. I've watched a couple of games, and I watch all the recaps. I listened to you, they feel like they don't have any plan whatsoever.

Spence, Yeah, I mean it's the plan they have is predicated on a tremendous amount of luck going their way.

That's the issue.

I mean, best kind of plan to have.

No, No, it's not. And you know, if you believe what they said. As far as xanax media availability to start the year, he said, look, and I really believe when Danny Ains dropped a big game hunting, Xanik probably puked.

He's like, what is he doing.

I don't think he liked that Danny dropped that, because when Xanik did his preseason media you could tell he was a little bit grumpy. He said, look, we tried, We went out and we tried to get good players. And Ryan Smith has been vocal and front facing about his desire. He wanted Kristaps Porzingis before he landed in Boss and he wanted Drew Holliday before he landed in Boston.

Yeah.

And I just say that because two or three years ago, when you deal Donovan and you deal Rudy and you're amassing all these draftics. I get all that stuff, but even two or three years in with the Thunder, or even a couple of years now in with the Spurs, and I know they landed Wemby and all that stuff, but.

It felt like there.

It just doesn't feel like three years into this thing, we're seeing any real tangible progress, that's all.

I mean.

No, And you're not wrong.

And they've got a really bright young coach, but I'm afraid if they can't give Will weapons in two years and when his deal is up, he might be like, all right, well gave you five years. I'm gonna go coach a team that actually has players. It's a tough scene, man. I feel for jazz fans, but they keep showing up.

Hey, by the way, just on the way out. This will make you feel good today. I was in an uber the other day and this guy goes, oh my god, Bill Riley, Like hey, he goes, I just got to say you, Spence and Shep were the best show that was ever in Salt Lake City and I've lived here for twenty years.

Oh yes, any included he did?

He goes, Boy, you guys used to let chef have it.

Well.

I cannot deny that, man, I cannot deny that. Bill always a pleasure, my friend. Let's get together soon. Okay, thanks Vince the Voice of the U. It's Bill Riley, brought to you today by Harmon's Valentine's Day Right around the right, around the corner. Guys, don't blow it, Say it with flowers this Valentine's Day.

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Van McMahon, Van Man bat is beating all the land.

Texas flood as tickets.

Mud He's man.

Van McMahon, Vanman the man.

All right, Tuesday afternoon.

You know what that means? Time for our Tuesday staple. And my goodness, gracious, I don't know how it's been for our guy, Tim McMahon over the past seventy two hours.

Tim, are you.

Sleeping, are you eating? Are you hydrating? Or are you just working right now?

I got a little I'm gonna played the last couple of nights, not so much the night before that. I don't think I've had lunch. I've been at this particular stop on the trip, but I'm freaing in breakfast in a little bit of dinner. So all right, my.

Man, Well, I appreciate the time, and look, you know, like everybody else, I've been trying to make sense of what's happened over the past few days, And like everybody else, I've been trying to talk to people around the league about if they knew about this, what their thoughts were. I've had more than a few NBA front office people text me and say, this is simply Dallas being concerned about his condition that is off the court habits and his long term health and whether or not he's durable,

But you're the guy for this.

Why would Dallas trade a twenty five year old Luka Doncics right in the start of the prime of his career.

Yeah, I mean the first one is the accurate one. They did not feel that they to make a three hundred and fifty million dollar investment, which would have been the supermax number roughly in a player who has not shown the willingness of the discipline to dedicate himself to conditioning. Who you know, they're they're fearful, he's his body has already breaken down at the age of twenty five. You know, he's missed twenty seven games already this season. They don't

So ultimately, let me let me follow up, because you've been on the ground there and you understand this dynamic better than any media member I could talk to. Like, I'm just simply of the opinion that you do not trade him, that you do not trade Luka Doncicch at twenty five years old, because in my opinion, he's one of the top two or three players in pro basketball.

I don't think I'm alone.

So that, to me, Tim indicates that behind the scenes it must be a lot worse than anybody indicates.

Is he just is he?

Is he a malcontent? Is he a pain? Is he great? On people?

Like?

Just how bad has it become behind the scenes there?

I mean, it is the difficult is the high landlans, Yeah, sure, one hundred percent? Or the conditioning concerns legitimate? Absolutely? Did he avage thirty four, ten and nine and leads a team to the NBA finals months ago? Yes, you know, And so I'm with you as far as you just cannot trade that type of talent during the state his career, when he could be enter any crime.

What has the reaction been. I mean, I imagine I know the answer.

But with Mavericks fans what what has been the town and tenor of the fan base down there.

Indeed, it's Saturday, when the Matters are back home, I fear it will be toxic act here. And could say there's been saying backlash is like saying Luca, Uh, Luca had a production season last year. It was a massive understatement. Uh. This fan base is angry, it is heart broken. It's you know, as Luca felt, blinds in the trade and the fan base fills out as well that you know BEYONDO. I mean, you know, there's protests outside the American Airline Center. People are canceling season safety.

It's like.

It's not gonna it's gonna be a not a not a nice vibe. I would say, when the Matters get back in the town and I have a home homestand coming up starting on Saturday, a.

Lot of people, including our mutual friend Tom Haverstrow who joined the show yesterday and his podcast partners, you know, they're they're bringing up this theory floated out by Dallas area attorney. And I've read the Twitter threat and I've read the reactions to it that this new ownership group after Mark Cuban sold his majority shares last year. This addleson group who has interest in Vegas, in the Vegas Sands casino. This is a long term play for them

Tim.

I would imagine only having Luca on a roster gives you more leverage to do things you want to do. But any is there any meat on that bone at all? I I can't follow that logic. But you're the guy for this.

What do you think you listen, I've seen that stuff. I don't think there's any meat on the bone. I don't think that the NBA would allow the Mavericks to move to Vegas where you know, ultimately they have plans who have an expansion franchise that will pay a whole lot of money to be there. You know, the whole Adelson Dumont Las Vegas Sans groups ambitions are to get gambling legalized in Dallas and to build a massive resort

Is there any way before we get over to the Lakers side of this, and then of course I want to talk about the jazz side of this as well, But is there any way? Because Luca is so good, people are talking about Anthony Davis like he's Jerome James for the next I mean, Anthony Davis is good, and he played in seventy two games last year. He has been really good this year. Is there any way this works out in Aniko's favor? Can you expand your horizons to get to that point?

I mean, yeah, it's within the realm of possibility. Well, I wouldn't have done the trade, but it is within the realm of possibility. I have talked to a couple of gentle manners who felt like this move made them

No, you just you don't do this trade. You just don't. And I'm not going to back off that assertion.

But let me ask you the question that everybody's been kicking around that I'm honestly conflicted about. We had mcminimon on yesterday. I kind of asked him the same thing. So I get the whole side of this, like why didn't you open this up for business? Why didn't you shop him to get a package that is better than what you got? But I also understand that if you know, according to your reporting and others, that Nico was just long for Anthony Davis, maybe this was just tunnel vision

Yeah, I definitely have heard a lot of criticisms about that. You know, the reasoning one walked into Anthony Davis, that's the guy he wanted.

Uh.

Two, he did not want to give Luca and his agent, Bill Duffie, one of the most respected agents in the league, A chance to have any influence on this, a chance to you know, uh, cut off discussions, you know, tell team we're not resigning, a chance to muddy the waters at all. So he wanted this thing to be absolutely done in secrecy. That's the logic, you know. I don't know, man, tell yeah, it's I would have at least wrote it out the rest of the season, and they didn't want to.

Let's be real.

Well it was real, yeah, and I'm still stunned. I thought maybe more information would come out after I got the alert on my phone to this day to day, but it's still as stunning right now as it was when it happened. The Lakers side of this, Tim, You know, when it comes to people that believe that the NBA is a scripted WWE league, they look at the Lakers and they say will to cream, cream to magic, magic to Shaq and Kobe Shaq and Kobe lebron Lebron to Luca.

I mean, obviously there's the risk of the hell stuff, but dude, they got the most talented twenty five year old in the least right now, the most I mean, this is a boon for the Lakers, and like you said, it basically played with the Bronus for the next probably a year and a half and off the Baton. You know, the hope certainly is that he will learn from the barn guy he idolized as a kid growing up in Slovenia.

No doubt all right.

The portion of your reporting that has received the most amount of tension around here is that the Utah Jazz did not know what deal they were facilitating, and according to what you and Ramona wrote, even Danny had only about thirty minutes notice. According to your sources. Dave mcminnimon coroborated your source yesterday. Dave said his source says the Jazz were quote flying blind?

How how like? How does this happen?

If you're one of the executives of the three teams involved with the transaction. Don't you want to know every single detail about the transaction, including the fact that you own their twenty twenty seven first round pick, top four protected, and suddenly you have just given them the ability to make sure that pick is probably in the twenties.

This, to me, Tim is not a great look. So unpack this for us.

Well, listen, I hear what you're saying that you're assuming the Jazz are their only options and they want I can promise you that the first I heard, the first time I heard rum this was and I got a fall from another team that say, hey, what are the Maps trying to do? They're trying to get us to take on a sub five million dollars salary. I think it's from another team and all those helass they're targeting

So with what the Jazz have done over the past few days to transactions really helping teams, the Clippers get under the luxury tax, the Lakers get Luca, it appears that Danny and Justin are simply willing to trade almost everybody on the roster outside of the young kids they like, and obviously marketing if any team is willing to give up assets and draft capital, so that leads us. I was told this morning John Collins will not be playing for the Jazz after Thursday.

Your thoughts on that that? Of course?

Sexton he sprained his ankle last night and Clarkson came in and actually played pretty well.

I wondered if any GM was watching last night.

I was like, hey, maybe you can't help, But what do you anticipate between now and Thursday afternoon here in Salt Lake from the Jazz.

I assure you there are plenty of scouts of Jazz games these days. I mean they're going to be they're going to be busy. Collins has certainly played himself to a point where you know there's interest there. I assume something probably gets doll with him, and it wouldn't you know, if you're asking me about those three guys in particular, how many of them are traded, I'd probably put the over runner at one point five.

Yeah, no, that that feels right. The last thing, how does the how does the Butler thing play out? What are your thoughts on the Jimmy Butler trade.

I don't have like it's gone from shipping anywhere to Phoenix or bus. I just didn't like, dude, I don't see a Phoenix trade. Brad may be able to have to okay it, and there would have to be a place he wants to go that wants to have them, and I don't think that's the case right now. And so you know, again, this like clear empowerment has taken

Yeah, well what a wild week, man. You guys have done a great job. So keep up the great work. Ten appreciate the time. We'll set you loose.

Be good, Okay, all appreciate you, brother.

And McMahon covers the He covers the NBA for ESPN. Specifically, he's their Mavericks guy. When the jazz are interesting, he's their jazz guy. He wrote a book about Luca that actually publishes March twenty fifth, and he and Ramona Shelburne wrote that piece about out detailing kind of all the happenings how this all went down, and Tim and Ramon are the one that reported the jazz had no idea

D track de track alert on a.

Tuesday no hits. We follow the advice of Andy Bernard when it comes to Dave Matthews band. All right, he typically joins us on Fridays. And my initial hypothesis is that it's sixty two degrees outside. So Chris Camaradie wanted to leave his house. But why don't we get you on a Tuesday today, not a Friday.

Because I got to leave the house.

That's what it is with shorts on, shorts on, I got the T shirt on.

I mean, it's I'm not going to complain about it. It's amazing. So I don't obviously want this to happen often because we are very reliant on these atmospheric rivers to bless our mountains with water to help, you know, the hotter times of the year. But I don't mind a couple sixty six If I have degree days in February.

I think it puts wind in the sales. Yeah, absolutely, get you to the end.

We already made it through January, so shout out to the group.

Yeah we did it.

Congrats everybody. And now, to me, February is just the second worst month of the year, shortest month. But it is a short month, agreed. And then we'll get to March, and ultimately we'll probably still have a lot of cold weather and snow in March. But when you get to March, you've just kind of made it to the end.

That's how I feel. I had this conversation with my in laws recently and they all disagreed. They all said March is too much of a tease in terms of the fluctuation of the weather. And I was like, well, if that's a teas, then what's what's going on right now?

It's a big teas because it will snow this weekend's gonna be freezing next week. But nonetheless, we got you out of the house and on schedule release day.

Oh huge c K.

Schedule release day.

Here.

Look, you know, it's an exercise in futility to try to analyze whether or not Utah is an easy schedule or a hard schedule. Just tell me who was picked to finish sixteenth, and then I'll pick them to win it like Arizona State, but for the first time since nineteen sixty seven, Utah and BYU play in October. It's October the eighteenth. Now for me, I'm a last year the last game of the year guy, and my second option would be like first game of the year but

It's the final game of the year. So I don't really have a question.

I just think that's the one thing that stands out of BYU Utah damn, you know, kind of slammed there in the middle of October.

Well, since you know I'm a I'm a man of the people, I know you are. The first thing I thought of was the Big twelve hijacked ue a weekend for families. Yes, they did this entire state. I consider that that angle that is a Disneyland weekend, that is a fall break, is a very important staple in the Utah publico public school calendar. And the fact that that is going to be part of the week, I mean, I think maybe it's not going to keep people from

Man.

I don't know, like, maybe we'll get some light shed. I don't know if Brett or Mark will be taking questions because I know when he when Utah joined, he did like these mini like roundtables with media members in various markets, and I was part of one and he spoke glowingly of the rivalry, said, it's, you know, one of the best in the country as we know it is.

And you just brought up another dynamic, which is UA weekend, And you know, I don't know. That's the one thing because again analyzing the rest of this stuff, like, hey, is it easier is at heart?

I don't know? Neither do you.

So that's the one you're not You're not crushing Cincinnati springball tape.

I mean the issue is, yeah, we'll look at springball stuff, but then another a portal window opens and don't know what they even know what they're gonna look like in the fall.

None of these teams.

So the BYU game is the one that stands out non con UCLA opening week passed it being a little Rose Bowl action. And if you want to take a road trip, that's probably the option because then it's cal Poly here at home.

It would have been cool if they played cal Poly on the road. San Luis Obispo would never happen in a million years, but an amazing college town. A lot of people in each time I'm sure aren't familiar with it. It's smack dab in the middle of south central California. Beautiful place. Had lots of friends in high school, who went there. But this is all a preamble to the ultimate unveiling.

Of the third game, Laramie. Wyom have a great Laramie story, you do.

Does it involve fans throwing feces at people?

It does not. It involves the late great Dirk Facer trying to save my life.

Shout out to Dirk.

It was the two thousand and eight season they went undefeated. I was the beat writer at the Crowny that year, and I think the game was in the middle of October, so everybody was like, thank god, we got to Laramie and we're dodging potentially a very sticky situation. It was like fifty degree or fifty mile an hour wins in that day. It was like a crazy odd game. Nobody

Well, to your point, the good news is this is September thirteenth.

Does that matter though it's sixty six degrees in February.

I guessing, I guess nothing is real I learned which I did not. No, maybe I should if this game has been on the schedule for like ten years? Yeah, and so is this the final? Like, hey, okay, we did the thing. The deal is complete and no more of this nonsense.

I mean, considering this was made when Utah was a Pac twelve team, a home game versus Wyoming makes sense because Wyoming is traditionally a decent Mountain West Conference team. It is not a bad schedule, and it's not a bad team to have on your schedule. The trip to Laramie can be tricky, man, it can be Harry, I know BYU handled it last year, don't I don't think it's that bad. Frankly for a Utah team that does

You can.

What can you do in Laramie?

Wrong? Got a flying Jay's all over the place.

I mean wrong. I mean I would assume that I'm not the type of person that can just walk into any sort of establish Schmidt and Laramie and be welcomed with open arms.

Maybe wish I could argue with that. Maybe probably probably following on that one.

But cool stadium, I'll say it, have you been there not for years? Interesting stadium? Yeah? If you're looking to splash your cash, is it like, do you want to drive whatever it is six or seven hours to Laramie or do you want to say for a five thousand dollars trip to Morgantown because you got a flight to Pittsburgh. I don't know.

Well, again, we are the wrong people. Ask with that guy in there. Porters is out front, facing excited about.

The app Man on the Street. Man on the Street interviews every single day, calling in live hits.

So what is uh, what what is calling your heart about this potential September weekend trip to Laramie. I just like the the open skies of Wyoming.

I guess I.

Listen when you get out on the planes. I've driven through there multiple times in the summer. It is is something to behold like from like a this we're at there. I don't know what elevation they're at. They're at very high elevation. It's just like the planes and you're like, man, this is like very much the most secluded Division one university in the country. Yeah, like that. I'm all whenever I'm there, I'm like, how do they recruit people here?

What will you be doing with your free time when you're not working in Laramie?

Probably will be spending too much time there.

I don't know.

Have you ever been except yeah, yeah, yeah, okay. I've been to Laramie for one football game. I've been to Laramie for a couple of rodeos.

See if there's a rodeo, I'm down right, like if you could overlap some stuff in laram Yeah, I mean, if there's an event, like I can, I'll throw down. I'll go to Laramie with Porter.

You want to go, I do not, but I will support the two of you in your endeavors headed to UH to Laramie, whether it's a football game or a rodeo.

I think I'm good.

But let's pull out the c K Yelp guide, the travel Zagat guide and talk about road of options. We already talked about Pasadena. We just got into Laramie, all due respect. Then it's Morgantown, Provo, Waco, Texas, Lawrence, Kansas. Any hot rex with the other road trip potential.

Never been to any of those places? Yeah, I know, I know a lot of good places in Provo. Come on, I'll give an underrated shout out to a place that's not in Provo. The Purple Turtle, American Fork, great burgers, amazing tater tots, like a mom and pop fast food place. Yeah, the Purple Turtle.

So hit up the Purple Turtle on the way to Provo in America and it makes sense.

Purple. You know, it's the melding of red and blue. It's it's a perfect place for people to meet.

Any gut feel on BYU next year, like top preseason top twenty five. Where do you think BYU Land fifteen?

That's fifteen. I'm trying to think how many guys they're going to lose to the draft. Didn't lose anybody that significant in the portal.

Conor Pey graduated, Baddie graduated.

Yeah, I mean so like they have a lot of a couple guys in the trenches. Batty was was, you know, they're arguably one of their best defensive players in Connor was. Both guys are team captains. They get Keanu Tonavasa, like, that's a huge get. Jake Retzlov has another year in aerron system. They still have a bunch of weapons. Chase Roberts decides to come back. LG. Martin's coming back. They're deep, man like, I mean think I think their defense surprised

You talking about BYU. Yeah, yes, I will pull it up. It's like Portland's not it's not all that. It's like Portland State. They have to go to East Carolina.

Oh that's a tricky one.

That finishes their deal with them. Yeah, that's what I'm almost talking about that earlier.

Yeah, that's a tricky game.

So it's Portland State.

They have Portland State in Provo, the Stanford and Provo and then they have a September thirteenth by which is wild and then they're out East Carolina.

That's a pretty decent non con schedule. Yeah, if you think about it. I mean, I know, Stanford is no world beater at the moment, Andrew Luck is back at his alma mater trying to build things as the you know, pseudo GM of the football program. But Stanford here and then at East Carolina. I mean, there are worst non conference schedules.

BYU is on the road quite a bit as I'm reading this. So Portland State home, Stanford home, bye week out East Carolina at Colorado home against West Virginia at Arizona home against Utah, and then yeah Jack Trice for Iowa State, Lubbock.

For Texas Tech.

Those are tough games.

TCU at home, Cincinnati on the road, UCF at home. Yeah, you couldn't schedule Utah November twenty ninth because you had to fit in UCF.

That's BYU's final game.

And that was Utah's final game this year.

Right, I don't.

I don't. I mean, I'm sure trying to get everybody somewhat pleased with a sixteen team schedule is near impossible. But again, if you're the Big Twelve, this is is there outside of Arizona State in Arizona? Is there another rivalry within this conference right now? Pay State, Kansas? Yeah, I mean those are your three. Yeah, But I maybe I'm biased here. I feel like the casuals will turn in for Utah BYU way more than Arizona.

Arizona State well, and again based off of the debut of that game in the Big Twelve last year, just checked every box. So that's the one thing that's certainly puzzling.

Dion.

Without Shador, what does Colorado look like? You know, they they had Travis Hunter and Travis Hunter. They according to what I read this morning, they have the number one QB transfer.

They got Caden Psalter from Liberty and then but there's another and Juju Lewis, who was a five star kid who was committed to USC for a very long time.

Okay, that was the king I read about. So obviously di has shown he can get talent. But now that you know Travis Hunter and his kid is they're gonna move on? What's both you ton buy? You have Colorado next year?

What do you think?

I mean, this is the great question that a lot of people who followed Dion Sanders and follow Colorado are wondering. Is for so long Dion was adamant that you know the reason why he wanted to do this was to coach his sons, and I think a lot of people were waiting for the other shoe to drop. When Shador and Shiloh and Travis graduated and or moved on to

Man Like.

If twenty twenty four taught us one thing, everybody's in play, and.

I think they have.

I think they have Georgia Tech at home to start their non conference schedule, which is a great non conference game. But it'll be fascinating, man like. Dion has coached his kids since they were nine years old and it's been like this for fifteen years. And not only like. He literally went from Peewee to prep school, to high school, to Jackson State and now to Colorado.

The latest mock this is Matt Miller's mock. Have Shador going six in the NFL draft and that would be to the Vegas Raiders.

That might be my favorite option.

There are worse places to go. Listen, it would be fascinating to have the ultimate football dad, Dion Sanders have to deal with Pete Carroll and Chip Kelly. Yep, two guys. I'm sure he respects a ton for obvious reasons from the fit and scheme point of view for our guy.

Shout out, John Paul, Uh.

Sure are going to play for Chip Kelly? I mean, there are worse offensive minds to go play for. I mean, I think I read somewhere that the Raiders are going to pay Chip six million dollars a year to be there.

Oh see, Oh, I guess that's why you leave Ohio State after one.

Which is which is more than Dion is making right now at Colorado.

Did you ever think Dion was seriously flirting with Jerry Jones?

You didn't think so?

Now.

I mean I talked to so many people who covered the Cowboys and they were like, listen, nobody is ever going to be a bigger star in the room than Jerry. Jerry might make it seem like, I mean, who knows. Maybe he was helping Dion out being able to cultivate some leverage in his ongoing renegotiation talks with Colorado, because Colorado is paying Dion five point seven million a year right now, that's a that's a bargain, I think, considering

Now?

Yeah, no, for sure?

What are you?

I know you're not a scout, but I'm a scout. Well, I know you've got Tay. Okay, I know you're gran Tape. No're a ball I'm ready shoulder in the NFL. How do you think that looks?

Hmm?

Behind a good line, he's he can be really good man, Like he has like tremendous touch, Like he gets the ball out so fast unless he's running for his life, which he did way too often the last two years.

Matt Miller has cam Ward off the board at three to the Giants. Okay, they need a quarterback. I would argue Tennessee needs one too. Abdual Carter the edge Russia from Penn State seems to be getting all the love for the number one pick, Travis Hunter off the board of two, cam Ward three, Mason Graham a tackle at four. Will Johnson, the Michigan quarterback, corner back at five than Shador at six, and he like Jayden Daniels comps there.

Well to see what Jayden did this year.

I mean Shador at times, there's a little bit of they're built the same, They're very similar with their measures.

Jayden's way more of a like a dual threat. Yeah, Like Shador can take off and run if he needs to, but he's way more content staying in the pocket and waiting for routes to open up. And he's really good at delivering the ball on time in you know, difficult, difficult circum circumstances. Jayden, I mean, nobody saw it coming. I mean it's like I remember my year on the

And I do think the Raiders faded somewhat interesting, and you know, honestly, yeah, face value. I always kind of roll my eyes when I hear a parent say, well, I will not let my son play for this franchise, or you know, we're going to step in to make sure that he has the best chance of succeeding. But it's happened so many times over the years, and.

Whenever he said going to Sandy absolutely and.

Then John Elway back in the day, like and so, I don't believe Zach Wilson was going to be a great NFL quarterback anywhere he landed. But I always thought Sam Donald had in him what he did this year in Minnesota, and when the Jets drafted him.

As a Jets fan, I'm like, all right, we got our guy.

You know you want him to bring him home.

I would love that, really, I love that for me.

I wouldn't love it for Donald because ultimately, whether it's Sam Donald, Zack Wilson, I'll leave Aaron Rodgers out of this. I would.

I would get it.

Like if if my son Connor was the potential number one pick in the draft and the Jets had the number one pick in the draft. Even though as a Jets fan, I think I'd be tempted to be involved to get him to a place where he has the best chance to succeed long term. Zack essentially is out of the league and Sam luckily had enough, He had enough coaches.

Who got to go to San Francisco and sit behind.

I think that's a huge There are a lot of smart football people that love Sam Donald and I don't think Zach had that going for him. I don't make vegha him a shot, but he was third string all year and I'm not even sure that they'll be in the league next year.

So I've kind of changed my tune. Like, if you're a father and you have a.

Chance to influence what will chart the course of your son's future, you do that, even if it's getting involved to make sure that he lands with the Raiders to play for Pete Carroll as opposed to the Titans or whatever it is. I would kind of understand if Dion wanted to flex his muscles a little bit.

Oh yeah, without a doubt, And he has the clout and the type of way that I think if he when he talks people listen like I think, when you have the type of career and the personality like Dion, your words go a long way. And Shadoor too. I mean, like being around those guys for the last couple of years, it is not hard to see that the apple hasn't fallen too far from the Treatly, those guys are totally understanding of life as a professional athlete, even at you know,

Maybe.

I mean, if you can become the savior of the Cleveland Browns, you'll walk on water. But that's easier said than done. Shiloh pro is his other kid, a pro special teamer. I mean he might get a late round draft or an undrafted free agent.

But yeah, all right, Utah schedule release, Big twelve schedule release.

We have Chris Camaraddi live in studio.

We'll do a little bit more college footballs on the college football side of things for the athletic snow Outside Away from the World twenty twelve. But I mean that's just me because I'm an expert. But we do follow the Andy Bernard rule, deep tracks, no hits. Did you see our guy and the band, let's get his mic out. Our guy and the band be inducted into the Hall of Fame to ask.

You this already.

I think we talked about this a few weeks ago.

Yeah, I don't remember what ad for breakfast this morning. We're just talking off air. Nothing is real now, but Chris Camraadni is live in studio four o'clock hour. Look, I know you're not an NBA guy, okay, and I know that you're you're plugging in a college football We'll get back to little college football a bit. But what has happened this week in pro basketball is truly historic and it's never happened before. But for a guy like you who once upon a time maybe watch a little

They just are. I have my own theories about it.

And as we approach the end of football seasons to Super Bowl, you know, the Sunday, and then we move into football offseason, the numbers will grow. They always do. But does news like this reverberate with you at all? That Luka Donci, a twenty five year old generationally special player, has been traded to the Lakers. Does that do anything for a non NBA guy like yourself.

I'm gonna risk myself sounding super nerdy, but like to me, I'm way more fascinated like what ends up being reported, like how how each side basically tries to construct and control various narratives as to why something's happened and why some things didn't.

I did.

I like to listen to press conferences because one I think for reporters it's really important to learn to ask simple, succinct, easy questions but with meaning. And I watched some of Luka Doncic and Rob Polinka's press conference today, and you know a lot of those guys as you know you have some of these guys on your show, did it. We're pretty direct in asking Luca and Rob like some of these theories of why Luca got traded and why he might have been on the block, And it's fascinating

Don't work out, Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But then I told him, I was like, hey, well, I mean that you can look at it from a glass half full point of view, And I said, you could tell him, and you can tell me if this is wrong. But like, aren't the MAVs in theory going to be a better team this year on paper with Anthony Davis then if healthy, then with Luca and Kyrie?

Yeah, potentially, Okay, I would say no, just because Luca. I've never really seen a player at Luca's age impact the game the way he impacts it. In five years, five first team All NBA selections, five All Star Games, he was thirty five, eleven and nine last year in the playoffs and led them to the finals. He actually led the NBA in minutes played if you combine the regular season in the postseason last year. Okay, mile Ta like, he must be such a royal pain in the ass.

He's a really good player.

Ben hand logged in.

Good shout out, Ben hand logged in on a Tuesday. It's never a bad time to get a Ben hand logged and shout out. And maybe it ups there, you know. Bottom line this year a little bit, but moving forward, Like I'm not a conspiracy theory guy, you know that. And usually when somebody is, I kind of roll my eyes, whether it's sports or politics or religion. But the Lakers man Wilt to Kareem. Kareem's your bridge, Kareem to Magic.

To Lebron, Kobe and Shack to Kobe and Powell Correct, correct, Champion.

Just another bridge.

And now the bridge is Lebron to Luca and it's the If you're a Lakers fan, it is the perfect You could not have hand picked a better player to step in and run your team after Lebron is done, whether that's this year or the year after. Lebron has a player option to play for the Lakers. For one more year. My guess is he he wants to play for one more year. I mean he always he already got his kid in the league, and poor kid can't play.

We'll see how that works.

There's some redundancy, but that's the type of redundancy you want because they're both brilliant and they're both geniuses with making decisions.

Has there ever been redundancy at that level in the NBA and have it worked to a championship level?

Good question.

I mean when you think about teams with a couple of great like heatles, you know, I was gonna say, the one interesting thing you talked about is Lebron played with peak Dwayne Waighte like in his prime Dwayne Way and those two figured it out right, And so I've never been I've always pushed back on the whole, like, well, they both need the ball, so they can't play together.

Like no, especially in today's NBA works it's like just try to just use your skill to get open. Nobody's running these complex sets. It's like give no house set the screen, get around him, give me.

The talents, and then we'll figure it out. I've always been that guy. So even though there is a little bit of redundancy between the two, there are two of the top I don't know four or five decision makers in the history of the game, and at twenty five you do not make this trade. It truly is wild. And I haven't talked to anybody around the league that saw this coming. Everybody is just completely.

Seeing I think that's like fascinating to me more than like the encore part my job. It's like, in this day and age, how did Nico Harrison and Rob Polinka basically keep this under wraps? I mean Rob basically said in his press conference today, he was like, it was made clear that if this got out, if this was

Yeah, but like, what do you think Rob Polinka does at night when he's not working. There's something off about that dude. He was dressed like he was the lead singer of a bad bon Jovie band. For the press conference. There's some jail.

The jail pointed downward is the is the first question that I have that the tight leather jacket unzipped on both ends a little bit, it was a secondary one. But listen, man, Like, when you're living that la elite lifestyle, you got to keep up with the with the joneses.

I'm thinking, if you go to the Viper room on a random Tuesday morning at like one am, there's a chance Polinka just comes limping out of the restaurant.

You don't You don't think he's, you know, playing some pickup on Santa Monica.

No, I get vibes from him. The bodies are buried somewhere. I'm not gonna lie.

He's a good rob blow.

He does look a lot like bl but but but ultimately, does this up the bottom line of interest for the league? I mean, over the past twenty four or forty eight hours, the highest downloaded articles on ESPN's dot com or all this Luca is this Luca trade. Everybody's talking about it, all right? Moving over to our local pro basketball team. When you're in a family gathering or you're hanging out with friends and they know that you cover sports, what do they ask you? What do they say to you

I think, apoplectic, Like I don't. I don't know if there is a vibe right now, I think, and again for if there is a faction of jazz fans that are frustrated that the franchise is where it is, I'll give my unsolicited opinion that people don't care about It's

I want to say, did Dirk play with Luca one year?

Yeah?

I mean maybe to check ESPN stats and info or guy like, it just doesn't happen in this league. So the fact that you had a player like that on your team the face of the franchise. It's so difficult to land those guys in the first place. And I'm not even comparing Luca to to Donovan because we know Luca is a generational player and Donovan's a good he's a good NBA player, He's an one.

One season together.

Yeah, but it is so hard, especially in markets that aren't LA and not you know, New York. But that being said, if you do look at the kind of the powers that be now, it's in the East Eastern Conference obviously Boston, but Cleveland, Milwaukee not destination towns. Oklahoma City, Houston, Memphis, and the West not destination places. It's all about how you build, and the Jazz have to build and they we honestly don't know if they have any building blocks

And to your point about this not necessarily happening very often in pro basketball, you just have to rely on savvy planning and then luck. You just have to like because it has happened in other places, it just hasn't happened here. The only time the Jazz have been built correctly and they've been able to win at a high level, you had some very smart talent evaluators find some very very high value in places in the draft that you

For the Jazz and you need a couple huge dominoes.

Yes, And the most likely way to do that in a market like Salt Lake is simply having a top pick like san Antonio did.

I always draw the san Antonio example.

I have done this for years because people will say, well, you can't do it in Salt Lake, and I'm like, have you been to San Antonio?

Tape? Man?

I like san Antono.

I liked it the first.

Couple of times.

Then it's like, Okay, are we doing nachos in the river walk again?

Okay?

Yeah, I'm with you. Tech the text mix if you find the right spots there. But yes, I'm with you.

Okay. So I would prefer saw Lake over San Antonio. Then when you look at the you know, the media numbers, they're a smaller market than we are. But San Antonio David Robinson first overall pick, Tim Duncan, first overall pick. You talk about Laker bridges, Okay, now we have San Antonio bridges, and now they have Victor wemban Ya.

I'm a number one overall pick.

They had three opportunities to draft the number one player overall and they've knocked it out of the park all three times. And the Jazz have never had the number one overall pick. It just is going to take a little san Antonio type lady.

Luck.

Yeah, they've they've chosen wisely when it comes to choosing to be bad, right, because I think the year that they chose Duncan, I think Robinson was really hurt the year before or was it the lockout No.

No, the lockout year was the year they won the title over Latrell Springs all in Houston and the New York Knickerbockers. But the year Duncan was a senior at wake Forest. As the story goes, David Robinson reported a camp and he was like, hey, I'm good, and they're like, well, actually you're not not. Your back really hurts, and so he wanted to play that year and they basically said, just watch this kid at wake Forest. That's why you're not playing. But again, you need the lottery, lucky, best

It's funny if that's true that they told like the most in shape giant human in the history of the world. Like I remember like in Awe of David Robinson who was like seven to one and was like cut like a bodybuilder, and the stuff that he could do. But anyways, my question to you, and this is where we're getting really sports talk, redo, why doesn't the NBA follow the NFL model where the worst team gets the best top pick, Like, do you think there's a world in which the NBA could go that route.

Well, once upon a time that was talked about, and the fear is that too many teams would just be unserious.

Well that's what they're always they're doing anyways.

Yeah, and the NBA would tell you their spin is they're trying to avoid the tanking that is so clearly happening.

Yeah. The irony to me is that in the NFL, I'm sure there are some tankers, but like for the most part, people are trying way harder than in the NBA. And the NBA has the lottery system. It's just iron Yeah.

The way the NFL is set up, really top to bottom is a better business model. It's not as favorable to the players, right, And so this is an unpopular take. If if a pro athletes listening to the show, because really, the guaranteed contracts in pro basketball change the way players decided.

To approach their job.

There was a time, Chris, where NBA players honestly needed paychecks on the first and the fifteenth of every month, and if they didn't show up and play in games, they weren't paid, right, and they needed the money they really did. Now, what's Lebron need another dollar for it? And not just Lebron. You can go down the list. A lot of these players will never have to work a day in their life, and neither will four generations

It's a better business model for the viewer.

Which is why the NFL has the best TV show when it comes to sports period.

End of story, it just does.

Do you think if the NBA adopted the worst to first model, do you think that would expedite the process of teams rebuild Teams that need to rebuild faster, like the Jazz or like the Wizards. Do you think that would help the parody.

Maybe is the answer. It's tough because another model that I've seen thrown around is simply you just cycle it every year, just you know, Okay, the Jazz have the first pick next year, then they go to the thirty second pick next and then they move up, you know, and then they just kind of rotated that way. This is one way where you flatten a lottery odds. And so you're trying to avoid the the you know, the

Guard or something.

You know what, man, I just go back to promotion relegation. Let's just bring it to the NBA.

It would be communist man, it would rule that you I mean, that's a reality check podcast, it is.

Man, but that would rule all right.

So Jazz basketball, Steph Curry and Town tomorrow night they lost the Pacers last time. NBA trade deadline comes and goes on Thursday afternoon. There actually is something that you shared that you actually wrote about recently, and it's interesting because I talked about on the show. I believe college football games should be played on college football campuses. Yea, and I believe that should go for every single game, maybe besides the National championship game. You make that your

It was I talked to fans of each of the four semi finals teams who had gone to various playoff games, whether they were all of them or a few of them.

So give us an idea of what that economic impact was like if you were a fan of a team and had to go to multiple venues to see them play in the CFP.

Yeah.

So the Notre Dame fan I talked to was awesome because she's based in Pittsburgh, isn't a lum, isn't a season ticket holder, so she doesn't have the inn in terms of maybe a not as significant hit from a ticket's point of view. But she went to the home game against Indiana. She went to the Sugar Bowl against Georgia, the semi final against was it Penn State maybe Pensteam, Yeah, and then they went to the National She went to the National championship game against Ohio State, and you know,

So the breakdown, and this is the lady, the Notre Dame alum, and is this just did she have family with her? Is this just her?

Just her?

So? Can you imagine if you're traveling with like a family force. So, this is what it cost one Notre Dame fan to attend Indiana, Georgia, Penn State, and Ohio State. Ohio State first round against Indiana tickets, lodging, miscellaneous, one thousand and sixty two quarterfinal UGA, same stuff, one eight hundred ninety five semifinal, Penn State, same stuff, one thousand, seven hundred and twenty five championship game against Ohio State

Yeah, and I think her name is Christy. It is okay. Christy had an inn of sorts because some of her group of friends are more high profile donors, and at Notre Dame, if you the more you donate, the more likely you are to get a friendly budget hit when it comes to tickets. So that worked out great for them. It probably was a lot more tickets wise for other

It's a lot to ask, Yeah, it really is. And you know, it's interesting in college football fans. It's just I don't know, if you get older, you just realize most of these things, and maybe you don't understand entirely. Politics, football, religion is so much about community. Yeah, right, and that's really all it is. In a lot of ways, even people don't even care to intellectualize the community they're in.

Yeah.

And they want to flash to you, yeah, and they want to flash to you whatever it is.

Yeah, that community.

Yeah, I was surprised to know this most expensive tickets round one Indiana and other.

Name I mean the proximity.

Yeah, like you could have also history, the first year history.

Yeah, and like they the folks who were either legally or illegally selling tickets, Yeah, could just inflate those numbers to an ungodly level because when is Indiana going to get back there? Maybe maybe they will, But like I think Bloomington is a three hour drive to South Bend. Like the fact that they were so close, it was just a no brainer for people to be able to take advantage of our capitalistic market.

Place, indeed, the neoliberal capitalistic takeover. But look, when you had been indoctrinated into a community and you love being part of that community, You're fine spending this money.

Oh.

Everybody I talked to is like, I do it again. I do it in a heartbeat.

You're gonna buy the shoes, You're gonna buy the bibles, You're going to buy the tickets. You're going to shell out the cash because you want to be part of that community.

Well, and for so many of these schools this year at least, like like I said, this is potentially a once once in a blue moon type deal. Like for the Ohio States or Texas's they'll be back and they'll have home games. But for a lot of these schools, like I mean, I remember there was a in real

All right, before I set you loose. The Utah Hockey Club has narrowed their list of name options. What are we at so fans can go through the motion of pretending to vote for the name tonight one more time and then just give qual Tricks your info.

Then they'll do whatever they want. That's the bottom line.

But anyway, the exercise is thought to allow these people to potentially vote on Utah Hockey Club, Utah Mammoth, and then the Utah Outlaws. And we learned that Porter's distant cousin is Billy the Kid or who is it? It's it's one of the Outlaws. I'm gonna wait till you get it right. Which Cassidy and the Sun Dance Kid and the wh Old Bunch Porters related to Butch Cassidy. So we did a twenty minute history lesson on Outlaws in Utah last week.

Who's the dude who was the like the henchman for Brigham Young Porter?

Porter Rockwell is his namesake?

Okay?

So another I don't even know is it?

Yep?

My third great grandfather we talked about was like his best friend. So we So what I before I go, I want to know your votes for the name Utah Hockey Club. I keep going back and forth. I'm kind of like a dinosaur fossil nerd as well as like an outlaw nerd. So I'm kind of cool with either one. And Spence has kind of gotten me on board with Utah Hockey Club being a decent option as well. So I'm going to currently vote for Outlaw, but I'm I'm going either way. So we in this state we are

Okay, I think I've landed on that as well. We just did an hour with Well Tracey.

We didn't even talk about the.

Trays in Santa Barbara.

So they're in Coachella. Man, Oh, that's right, they're in Coachella now. I bet Pobs is tripping on something.

Listen, let's tripping on formations.

Little Jack, little Jack Johnson, Den Harper on the speaker. Oh, golfing with Pobs man the music that comes. We had a we had a couple of Jason Moraz tunes.

Oh yeah, you've told me about that.

That was rough.

That's okay, No, it's not.

It is. There has to be a line, Jason Maras has to be the line. There has to be a line. You're offending Dave Fox in here, give me a I'm sure Fox loves Maras. I can see Fox in a Fedora. What's what's what's going on right now with give me a quick thought on the lads on Situlus.

I think it's two weeks from today. They they're down in Costa Rica's right conquered cass. Yeah. Quick thought is they got worse this offseason? Yeah, they did, and there's no really other way to spin it. And I think the fan base is probably very bummed out because for a long time they were waiting to have the type of roster constructed that they had last year, and to see it dissipate in eight months is probably pretty heartbreak.

Yeah, you're not buying the spin goals by committee, thirty five year old keeper good with.

His I mean it's MLS dude, who knows like they could for all that we know, like they could get the seventh seed and go on a run to MLS Cup next year with a bunch of with a bunch of dudes. I mean, I guess we know some of them, but like I don't know.

Christopher, Great to see you. It's still sixty two. Did you did you can? Did you ride the bus?

Should have? Oh wow, I had to run errands before We'll.

Get home safe man. Good to see it.

Thanks man.

I'm trying to think when you would really want to listen to music like this, like a road trip, driving long distances. Dave Fox is live in studio all right, which hipster EDM band? Did you bring us today? First of all, there is a connection here is this is Cascade. Have you ever heard that name? I have heard of Cascade. I actually have a Cascade song on a playlist to mind. What do you know about Cascade? The only that the song I have is called Fine Love and it's actually quite good.

Okay, that one? That was Fine Love. But he's a universe of Utah graduate. And in honor of the UTES schedule and BYU scheduled coming out today, I thought I would play you of you grad Cascade.

What's his real name?

Honestly, I don't know. Okay, it's definitely not cast I would be his last name?

I don't.

I don't know. I know him as Cascade as you do. Do you have any insight info on the Cascade? Is he like a DJ? Is that what it is? And it's it's a Cascade?

K A S K A D.

I did that song.

It's called on your Mind, by the way, okay, sweet, Well, so there you go, because I was on your mind today you were not. But you're live in studio. Thank you for having me last night on You're Always. It's a lot of fun. Great, Yeah, you ripped through that nicely. Shout out to timmy our guy. He wrote four of the five questions yesterday.

Dave, he writes all the questions every time.

That's not true, but he did. He's been doing a lot lately because he's he's just creative.

And I like to expand because if you if the same guy does it every week, it might get stale or every other week, and so I'll bring him in for a month or two and then.

I'll then you'll let Leonard do it and then kids, why don't you try doing it one time? Well, I've done it a lot, David. David, you are a hero.

Okay.

In our business you have people, no kids, listen up. Okay, If if you want to look up to somebody in this market that is in sports media, you should look up to Dave Fox. He somehow has found a way to create like a forty year career while never putting it in one ounce of work at all. And I'm not bringing that up to knock on. You want bringing that up to say, you, sir, are a hero. Well, thanks for that. Yeah, So that's amazing. That's gone that long.

It is bizarre. Why are we doing it?

I thought last year, after them not putting them at the end of the season, there was some talk of all, we should have done that, we'll get it right.

And then what do they do the next year They move it up even further. Remember last year, I believe.

It wasn't the first Saturday in November November ninth, Yeah maybe so, yeah, you're right, it was second Saturday November. But and then now they've made it even worse. I don't understand how, in this day and age of college rivalries and how great rivalries are, they think that Utah playing Kansas and BYU playing Central Florida, which by the way, is how Utah ended last season. Although at least b why you gets to be home is makes sense, at the end of the season, it makes no sense at all.

I don't know.

But it's it's sad and I and none of us can be that thrilled about October eighteenth. It's really while it's the one thing because look, trying to analyze what the Big twelve will look like this year in football on February fourth is an exercising futility. Tell me who you pick sixteenth so I can pick them to win? Right So, I don't know if it's a hard schedule. I don't know if it's an easy schedule. Comparing Utah to BYU, I'm not really even sure exactly how to

And P plus. But we'll have spring football, then we'll have.

Another transfer window, and come fall the team could look completely different. It's impossible to know whether or not this is an easier hard schedule. But the one thing that jumped out at me, Dave, was BYU Utah. And it doesn't matter if it's an easier or hard schedule. It doesn't matter who how good or bad these teams are going to be. We know what that game is, no matter what, no matter if they're over or undefeated. We know what that game is.

We saw it this year.

It was a great game, and BYU was had a better team on paper coming into it, So I don't know why they don't just do that now. If you use this year's schedule or teams as any sort of a barometer, Utah has a really tough finishing schedule with both Kansas schools. But other than that, you're right, there's no way to tell other than you know, Kansas should be playing Kansas State at the end of the season. Utah should be playing BYU at the end of the season.

Yeah, I mean, they have Arizona on a state final game of the year. And your point about last season is a good one because I can remember we even had some Big Twelve guests on the show and some college football like Josh Pate, who now has a really massive college football podcast. He was in town prior to the Florida game, and I asked him, have you ever been to a Utah BYU game? And he said, no, you know, but I know you know obviously if you know college football, you know it's a big time rival.

And I'm not a you know, sound the alarm. This sport is in trouble guy.

I think Saturday's in the fall are always gonna feel like Saturday's in the fall. But my concern things like this indicate the people that are making decisions are losing track of what makes college football special. And at the top of the list are rivalries because they are different than your pro football rivalries. And this one's so unique because by us forty miles that way. You have to take care of the things that make your sports special, and rivalries to me are at the top of the list.

Well, and what's even more frustrating about it, and your point is well taken. They witnessed it, they saw it. You referenced night two thousand and four. Yes, that was the Urban Meyer blowout year when they ran the table, but twelve months prior to that, it was a three to nothing game, right, I mean, and you know the same coaches.

I don't know.

I mean, you could hit these guys over the head with a two by four, and it seems like they're not paying attention. If I'm not mistaken, I think there were a number of people on the national level that's after this year's Utah BYU came out and said, wow, that should have been the end of the season, because it frankly should have, and they've just brushed it aside and here we go again.

Yep, yep.

And so you know, obviously, that to me is the main takeaway. Awful.

Well, the other the other thing, I'm sorry to interrupt you, the Utah's awful pre season schedule or non league schedule I should say, I shouldn't say awful, But okay, they go to UCLA, fine cal Paly here, and then how in the world are they going to Laramie.

So Bill joined us earlier, and he provided some clarity because Porter is very excited to spend a number of days and hours in Laramie. Yes, we're gonna send him, not just for the game, but I'm gonna give him the week off and he's just gonna go live there because that's the kind of guy.

Our guy is.

He kind of looks like a Laramie guy though. That's I mean, the beard, you know, the mountain mans hair. I'm gonna take it as a compliment, just so that's just switch that R on your hat to an L and you'll be right at home.

Okay, So we're gonna send Porter. He's gonna be a man on the ground. But Bill said, this game has been scheduled for nearly a decade, so this is long. So it's like, so Tom Holmer talked about this earlier.

Tom.

You know, so Byu was out East Carolina this year and at first glance, it's like, why are we doing this? And Tom said, no, it's we're we're making good our agreement with East Carolina.

And my understanding is Utah is doing the same thing.

With Wyoming.

Have you covered a game in Laramie? Oh, yeah, several times.

I was at the game in Laramie urban Meyer, I believe it was his first year when the power went out, you were at that stadium. I was actually at that game, and it was irritating because we were driving and we were going to drive home that night after the game, and as you know, the game got delayed wite a while. Wyoming wanted to little side story on this, and I was down there on the field while they were talking.

Yeah.

Yeah, he was like, no, we're finishing this game tonight. Figure it out. And they did, and then they got out of town. How would that have even worked? Fans would have to find like a motel, and especially in Laramie.

How long is that drive? Oh gosh, Porter, is it four and a half hours? Feels like it's longer than maybe five. It's not as far as Denver. It's not as far as Denver. Oh, you know, you're right, it is more than that. I think it's like five or six and it's and it's lovely scenery. Eighteen hours an eighteen hours riot that one porter. I need you to look up how far away Denver is and how far

How far away is Denver.

It's only a couple more hours from Laramie. It's due so way further.

To look it up our ESPN's and you can also you can also drive through the mountains if it's summertime.

Yes you can.

And it's very pretty our ESPN stats and info apart closer to eight on Denver. I used to live in Aspen. I know where, I know where it is. Well, that's a that's a new thing. When did you live in Aspen?

When I first started, I lived in Glenwood Springs, which is about twenty miles from after.

That's not Aspen. It's you want to sound cool, I said, Glenwood Springs. Aspen is a point of reference. You wanted to sound cool that you lived. I was very close to ass It's like there, there's only eight hours. Yeah, oh interesting, not that far anyway? All right, so terrible will you? Oh wait, so of course you're you're gonna send michel Itch to Laramie.

You're not going.

Oh, I don't think we're even send anybody. You don't send anything. You won't send anybody. No, we'll cover it off TV. We're not your cover that game. What's the point of covering that game? Because it's U tough football, Dave, and people care about it. We don't travel that much until postseason. Yeah, but Mikolitch, you would want to go to Laramie. I don't think so. You will fly Fish.

They were down last year.

They lose their quarterback, it was a first year coach, and look, UCLA should be good every year. I say the same thing about Cal football. You should be good every year you're in that recruiting footprint. I don't know what they're gonna be, but you could do worse as an opener than the Rose Bowl against UCRE.

Anytime you're power four versus power four, that's a good thing. I have absolutely no problem with that. By the way, it'll be toasty down there in August for sure, especially up there in that air.

The neighborhood.

BYU's kind of got the same situation, although they open with Portland State, as you know, But then I believe it's Stanford right after that, so that's not quite so bad.

I mean, it's the same kind of thing. That's just the opposite of Utah.

Utah goes, you know, power four versus power four, and then a you know, less than mid major, and b WU does just the opposite. So but BYU had Stanford a home too, so that's a little bit better. They can soften the blow of their fans sitting through Portland State knowing that the next week they get the Stanford at their place.

And then after Stanford they have a buye b Yu has an early early, then at East Carolina and then at Colorado. You know what, Porter, I'm a team player. Since you're going to Laramie, I agree that I will go to Pasadena. Okay, you may not. But because you're going to laram Me, I'll go to Pasadena. I'll golf for a week. Game, we'll hang out. Come on down, let's play golf. Let's do it. I like it, so Utah and BYU schedule release, let me kick the tires with you on a couple of other things with a

I don't know if the move itself does, but I think the byproduct of that, as soon as Lucas suits up for the Lakers, and by the way, against the Jazz.

Is a rumor that lucas first game against the Lakers before the Lakers will be against the Jazz.

That's right, So I can't even Well, now, if you're the network, you're probably thinking, oh, great, why does this have to be Why couldn't it have been okay see or even better Dallas? But because the Jazz have already had a game taken off national TV because of the situation, they're in second worst.

Team in the league, So I can I will.

I would definitely see a little bit of a boost once Luca gets in that Laker uniform.

And yes, that's a byproduct of the trade.

I don't know if the trade itself means, oh, everybody's gonna start watching the NBA, but I think it might give the Lakers a little bit of a kick. But aren't the Lakers one of those teams, like you know, the Dallas Cowboys that no matter how good or bad they are, they still have massive viewership.

So but I agree, I think there'll be a kick.

And I'm guessing that the network executives guys at TNT and ESPN or look at the schedule right now and trying to figure out, Okay, when can we get Luca.

And Lebron together on TV?

Can you imagine know if it is the first game against the Lakers is down there, so and then they play him again up here right the very next game.

Yeah, that's right.

So I don't know what the network thinking would be when that's your opponent. They're probably not thrilled. It's the Jazz, I'm sure they not. And he flexed this game, please, and who knows what's gonna happen? Think about the last Kobe game. Who was it against? It was against the Jazz, and he's destroyed them.

Yeah you know what if everyone watched it, but it's revisionist history. He didn't really destroy them. They just decide like and Hayward has talked about this because I was probably yes, I was covering the game. In fact, we'll ask our ESPN Stats and Info department. Look up one

He took fifty shots, but twenty one of them or from downtown now he shot twenty two total. He was twenty two pin fifty. He almost shot forty fifty percent.

He scored sixty Yeah, sixty points, Okay, sixty points on fifty shots.

Okay, I understand what you're saying. But I mean history won't always look at it that way. Well, all I'm telling you is you're going to take two of the iconic Laker games in the last decade in their bol against the Jazz. Yeah, I'm sure the NBA is not really about that.

Yeah, they can't be. But tell me what's going to watch? Because you're always asking me this on five questions or talking jazz. What do because you're Dave fox Man of the people. You're out and about in the community, and I'm sure when people see you at the ward or just around they want to ask you about the jazz.

What they what do they say about this currency?

Well, the first, the first thing you tend to get a lot of is you'd be surprised how people don't completely understand it.

I mean to a degree, you know, why are they so bad?

And then your first answer, your answer has to be, well, it's kind of by design, it's part of the plan. This is you know, And like last night, I'm watching this game with Timmy and you know, Timmy is he is hardcore jazz as they come. And I keep saying, Timmy, in the grand scheme of things, this is not a

I watched every second. It was so comical with the way they closed. I'm not a conspiracy theory guy, but with the way they closed, I was like, huh, the Clarkson turnover might have been so Clarkson turnover and go watch the replay. He let Tyrese Haliburton walk into a three. He just kind of went like this. Haliburt had ten

Of Oz and we just we're not aware of it, whether or not.

Okay, I think in that notwithstanding, it was the perfect formula last night, and we all agree with this play great, keep the fans in their seats, you know, stay motivated to the last second, and then lose. I cannot tell people enough, and I've got some coworkers that don't get this.

This is an important year for that draft.

It could change the shape of this franchise, sort of like Luca's going to change the shape of the Lakers franchise. Not maybe not so much this year, but for the next ten years. That's the situation that jazz are in. That's the difference between getting the first pick and anything else. So they've got to be all in on this. And by the way, you only really have to finish in the bottom three. They're all the same odds.

Yeah, yeah, I mean the tough part about these conversations is we're I'm not used to this, yeah, in Saul Lake, and so when you because I really believe and there's always this debate when you're doing a sportstock radio show, like the listeners who are all about the jazz and love the data and are just dialed in and it's like a big hobby of theirs. They know the deal, and you're not really doing the show for them anyway, because they're probably locked in on doing their own thing.

That's what you get a lot of and you try to educate them on it, and a lot of them just they either don't get it or they don't want to get it. But this is what they have to go through and we'll see where it all goes. Now, if they go through all this and that up with a third or fourth pick, we'll be a little frustrated.

We'll see. Super Bowl Week brings me in a lot of very exciting media opportunities. Andy Reid was asked for his favorite trilogy today as far as books go, and he said, the Bible, the Book of Mormon, the Pearl of Great Price. So me and Andy your buds and we have the same previous are on par Yeah, indeed, so some fun stuff there. But before I set you loose, yep,

You know, I'm an NFC East guy because of the Dallas Cowboys, so that I can't even think about the Eagles winning that game.

Sorry, but let me take that my heart out of it and think logically.

I I think we posed this question yesterday in Five Questions with Spence, and the way I posed it.

To you was, can you really in good conscience pick against the Chiefs?

And I don't think there's any way they've First of all, they so many weird things always happen in their favor and I don't think that's going away anytime soon.

And they're just a really good team. So there you go. And they've got fifteen under center, which probably is the bottom line, no question. Oh and Taylor Swift's a fan?

Are you swifty?

No, not at all.

Are you anti? I'm not anti?

I'm you know.

I bet there's a prop bet Taylor Swift or say Kwon Barkley total carries? What do we see more of her on camera? Or his total carry? You can bet on anything these days, but as I say, just don't do it. But David, it's great to see it there last night. We'll chat soon. Thanks Porter Dave fox Ku TV Five Questions with Spence last night to be on there again. Taka Jazz coming up in a couple of weeks.

The Utah football side of it.

If you're just hopping in your car and getting that commute home started on a Tuesday, the utes will open up in Pasadena at the Rose Bowl against UCLA. They'll come back home for the home opener on September the sixth, which is cal Poly, and then a week later they head up to Laramie to take off on Wyoming. This is a game, according to Ryle's our guy, that has been scheduled for about a decade.

So I know there are a lot of.

People upset that that's been scheduled, but I guess it's been kind of that way for a long time.

For instance, BYU was.

On the road to East Carolina and that is a contractual obligation that BYU has the East Carolina, So I guess that's just kind of make good the Big Twelve opener for the utes will be Texas Tech on September the twentieth. Here in Salt Lake they'll hit the road to go to Morgantown and take on West Virginia. After that they get a bye, and then it's Arizona State

There you go, Yeah, blow out the smoke.

Listen.

I get why folks want it played at a certain time. I get the I get the reasons for wanting it rivalry week, and I agree with them. I just don't think it's a huge deal. I'm glad the game is getting played. I will say, if to if I can play Devil's Advocate, maybe the Big twelve is like telling Utah and BYU, Hey, guys, we know it's a rivalry. We know it's a big deal. You guys need to

You know, hey, last couple of times it's gotten a little out there loose.

Did he get loose?

Your athletic directors are you know, having a hell of a time on the at the end of the game. Oh okay, I mean, I'm just saying. I'm just saying, maybe, if if the rivalry game is is making adults act in certain ways, the Big Twelve is playing parent.

Let me finished this tweet at Lars and ESPN reports that Big Twelve moves BYU Utah to October the eighteenth due to malfeasans from at Mark Harlan.

A d you're gonna you're gonna address Mark Can, I had send on a tweet at him.

Well, that essentially is what you just said.

I was including a particular outburst from said athletic director.

Yeah.

I don't think that's actually part of it.

I just I'm looking for reasons why the Big Twelve wouldn't schedule it late in the year or on a feature weekend. Maybe the answer is they want October eighteenth to be a feature weekend because they're there are other scheduled games elsewhere. I don't really know, just kind of looking for Big Twelve excuses.

I guess, well, I don't know about you, Porter, but I was excited about being in the Big Twelve, but today I'm not.

I'm not either man.

Yeah, I feel like that game has been stolen from us Utah YU, those of us that wanted it in November.

That's just the way I feel. Give me a break, Spense, well you will look.

Bottom line is this the Big Twelve decided to put Arizona Arizona State final week of the season. But that I mean, I guess how it depends on how you define rivalries. Kansas Cay State, but Utah BYU in my opinion,

That's the last year of Utah and BYU played football in October.

Is it the end of the world. It is very much not. But it is February the fourth, and you guys want college football. So we're creating topics. There's the truth, all right. We'll bring in Bill here, Arousalis stop by, the Voice of the Utes, will stop by, and we'll get his take on the timing of Utah BYU. We'll talk a little Utah football and we'll kind of unpack

No Luka Doncic for that game.

The rumor is Luka Dacic may make his Lakers debut against the Utah Jazz, as the Lakers have a couple of games against the Jazz coming up. One game is in Los Angeles and then they return home the Jazz too. So next week, Monday, February the tenth, the Lakers host the Jazz, and then on Wednesday, February the twelfth, the Lakers are in Salt Lake to play the Jazz. They've got the clips tonight. Then it's going to be Golden State and then Indiana, But the rumors are Luca's not

There you go.

What do you find yourself doing on a Tuesday night such as this, where it's warm outside and there's not a whole lot of local action going on.

It's warm outside, but it's like a nice outside. It's super windy and air's not great, So I don't I don't know. We'll be tuned into the sports action, but it may be a pretty low key Tuesday evening for your guy over here.

Nothing wrong with that, Nothing wrong with that at all.

All Right, before we say good night, I do want to tell you about my friends at Hadley Dermatology. So if you are like me, if you're like Porter, you enjoy being outside and the warm weather is reminded us that the sunshine is on its way. And even if you're a skier in the winter, you are exposed to the sun. So here's the deal. My friends at Ogden Clinic Hadley Dermatology. It's doctor Michael and doctor Jason Hadley.

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Halfway through the work week, Spence, We'll start it off with Neil Smith behind the glass, of course, talking about the latest in the National Hockey League in the Utah Hockey Club. Behind the glass each and every week with our friend Neil Smith, Chadwick stops by the program talking some NFL Draft talking of course Big twelve schedule release and of course Super Bowl on the program. And then on the eve of the NBA trade deadline, Zach Harper, Sarah Todd talking jazz and NBA basketball.

There you go. That'll be a fun Wednesday show, so join us for that. With that, we'll say good night for this Tuesday show and say a very special thank you to Bill O'Reilly as well as Tim McMahon, Chris Comarade, Comrade he excuse me, and Dave Fox for any of the sound you may have missed from the show today, Head on over to the website. It's ESPN seven hundred sports dot com. Make sure to download our mobile app

It is called The Drive with Spence.

Check its. That's available wherever you get your shows, So head over to your preferred podcast catcher, hit subscribe, give us a rating and review, say nice things and of us all the stars, and you will be eternally blessed for Porter. I'm spend saying tonight and show you Tuesday evening. Talk to you on Wednesday Drive as well as you can catch that right here on ESPN seven hundred